I Don't Need a Soul
by theMagicBehindtheMask
Summary: She cut me off with her soft laughter. "A soul? Yes Boy Blunder, even you need one of those." Part two of a disconnected series. Can be a standalone.


This is a Teen Titans Fanfiction. Obviously I do not own them, for if I did, you would be watching this instead of reading it.

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"Good job you guys. Now go back to sleep, you guys earned it."

I watched as Cyborg made a dash, albeit a groggy one, to the door, almost frantic in his need to recharge. Starfire stood up off the couch and proceeded to carry Beastboy to his room, who had fallen asleep in her lap as a small, green, kitten. Raven was the last to leave, but before she did she turned and asked,

"Are you... alright, Robin?"

I was surprised to hear her voice, but I answered automatically, "Yeah! Of course."

"If you ever need to talk-"

"Raven," I cut her off, too tired to have this conversation with her, "I know. I'm just tired, that's all. I'll be better after I go to sleep." _I hope._

She frowned but turned, tapping her forehead with an elegant finger, "I know you better than that, Robin, but I'll leave you alone until you want my help. Good night."

I watched her leave, my eyes glued somewhere around her swaying hips; I was too tired to look anywhere else. A few minutes (or were they hours?) passed, and I finally gathered the energy to drag myself to bed. I crawled onto my bed, too tired to take a shower to rid myself of the smell of smoke. In moments I had fallen into a dreamlesss sleep.

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Fire and smoke surrounded me as I forced my way into the building. Cyborg stood to my left, and Raven on my right. All three of us were yelling, hoping to hear a voice answer our desperate cries. We had been told that, though most of the people had made it out of the apartment complex, two children were left behind. Apparently they had been playing hide-and-seek when the fire alarm went off, and their babysitter had run off without them. _I wouldn't be hiring _her _again if I were those kids' parents. _I thought distractedly as I jumped through the flames. I made it to the family's apartment on the third floor and kicked down the door, wrapping my cape further around myself when the flames licked too close. A young voice reached me through the darkness, and I moved towards it suddenly finding myself standing in front of a burning door, with the sobbing voice on the other side. A crash and a feminine scream resounded in my ears and my heart dropped through my stomach. _The little girl!_

Heedless of the burns on my face I yelled for the little girl to step away from the door and searched for something to smash it with. I found a baseball bat in the corner and bashed the door in, my trepidation growing when smoke emptied itself out of the room to choke me. I coughed and called for the little girl through the thick air. What was her name again? Gabby? Abbey? I went with the last one.

"Abbey?" A cough racked my frame, "Are you in here?"

Sure enough a little girl came out from hiding in the closet and grabbed my hand, tear tracks making their way down her face. I tried picking her up, but she refused, pulling my hand towards a shadowed corner.

We didn't have much time, but for some reason I obliged, letting her lead me to the shadows where she promptly knelt and began dragging something out from under a broken piece of wood.

It took me a second to realize that it was the little boy, and only a moment after that to realize that he was dead. His tiny skull had been bashed in, and his lifeless eyes stared up at me.

I had to fight the vomit that surged up my throat.

The floor shuddered beneath us and I grabbed the little girl, studiously ignoring her furious screaming.

"No! Stop! My brother's still in there!"

_Please stop._

"We can't jus' leave him!"

_We have to. I'm sorry._

"We gotta go get him! He'll die in there!"

_He's already dead. I'm sorry._

"He'll be burned! He's afraid of fire!"

_I'm sorry!_

"Freddy! NO! We gotta go back! We gotta go..." Her cries dissolved into tears as she hit his shoulder.

_I'm _so _sorry..._

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I jerked into a sitting position with a gasp, fighting the urge to puke. My entire body was soaked in sweat, and my heart felt like a trapped gorilla was beating my ribcage. I grimaced, disgusted at my reaction to a stupid nightmare. With shaky breaths I leaned back into my pillows and shut my eyes, trying hard not to think about the little boy that I hadn't saved fast enough. The little girl, Abbey, had been fine physically, just a few scratches, but mentally she'd been torn to shreds, and I knew that the image of her twin brother lying dead on the ground with a fractured and bleeding skull would be forever in her mind's eye.

As a police car screamed on the mainland, I knew that it would never leave mine, either.

I listened to the sirens as they sang me back to sleep, and prayed that no one was seriously hurt. It felt like everything was dying at the pivot point of me, but I listened to the sirens, and the wails told me that things could still be worse.

_Of course they could be worse. The little girl could have died too._

I sighed, desperately trying to ignore the little voice that sounded a little too much like Bruce. I turned and tried to fall back to sleep, but apparently my hyperactive imagination didn't get the memo.

_That's right. Go to Sleep. _My concience sneered. _'Cause if you close your eyes and listen close, you can hear the chapter close, and it's already bound, and it's _better _closed. Leave it shut. Don't let the suffering of others get to you. That would be stupid. _Sarcasm was evident in the disembodied voice in my head.

_Let me go to sleep without any grief, please? Just this once? _I pleaded, wishing for nothing more than a few more hours' rest.

The voice gasped in mock surprise and exclaimed, _And you_ like _the way this story goes! You _like _ignoring innocent people's cries for help. It gives you a sadistic thrill, doesn't it? Some hero _you _are; letting little boys die._

_I did all that I could! _I argued, too tired to realize that I was actually arguing with myself. _Freddy's death was not my fault._

_Oh, so now your victim has a name?_

I growled into my pillow, irritated at myself for arguing with myself for doubting myself.

I was getting a headache.

_You know what? _I told the annoying voice, _You are a figment of my frequently over-active imagination, and __I'm going to stop talking to you._

The snobbish voice laughed, _I'm in your imagination, huh? And lemme guess, good will always triumph over evil? That's a laugh._

_It does. _I insisted, _'Cause the sun still burns the shadows out._

I imagined it pouting before catching myself; I was giving it a face now? Sheesh, I really needed to sleep.

_Well that sucks_, It whined.

_And there's nothing to complain about now, _I snapped, tired of fighting with it. Without warning, Raven's voice cut through the shadows in his room.

"Y'know, if you're going to talk to imaginary voices, I'm going to have you checked for paranoid schizophrenia."

I started, jumping up for the second time that night before flipping on my bedside lamp. She stood at the foot of my bed in a large tee- shirt and purple boxers. She carried a blanket and a pillow with her. I must have been staring because she blushed and threw the pillow on my bed before laying down and covering herself with the blanket. I leaned back down and turned off my lamp, rolling to face her.

"How did you know that I needed you?" I questioned softly. She grinned and I burrowed further under the covers, subconsciously (kind of) curling my body around hers. She placed her hands on my temples and rubbed my skin as an answer to my question and my eyes slid shut, reveling in the comfort she radiated.

"I could get used to this."

"Why?"

My eyes opened and I cocked my head to the side. There was no real reason behind it, so the question stumped me.

"Well, I guess it's because if this was our destiny I'd treasure the fact, and I'd give you what's left of me if I'd held back."

I stopped myself, sure that I'd given away _plenty_, but she waved her hand at me to continue.

"But...?"

Deciding that now was as good a time as any, I continued, "But I don't need a soul-"

She cut me off with her soft laughter. "A soul? Yes Boy Blunder, even you need one of those."

I shook my head, "No, I don't need a soul to _hold. _Without you I'm still whole, and you and life remain beautiful."

_You and life remain beautiful._

She frowned and I knew that she'd argue, but she stayed silent, giving me a chance to elaborate.

"Departing from the hospital ill news showed on your face too well." I touched her side and she flinched, the burn located there was still causing her pain.  
"You're trying not to cough at all." I frowned.

She shrugged as though second degree burns on the ribs were commonplace. "It hurts," she replied.

"I hate it when you're in pain." I said softly, earning a kind look and a hand on my arm.

"When all options are exhausted, you have to do some pretty drastic things. All your numbered days are numbered small, and I don't want them to go by having not been lived. If I get hurt, so what? It's part of life. You don't have to say 'I miss you' now, or 'I loved you,' and," She looked me dead in the eye, "I know things could still be worse." I smiled and she snuggled into my chest.

"Go back to sleep Robin, and try not to think so hard. It's giving me a headache."

And this time it wasn't the sirens, but her heartbeat that lulled me back to the land of dreams.

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Well, I have given up on trying to get the repeated chorus in here, so this is the end. This actually ended up very different than what I had in mind. Raven wasn't even supposed to be there. She was just screaming at me to be put in though, so I had to oblige her. She can be- *dodges flying dish*- persuasive.


End file.
